


This is Home

by shions_heart



Category: Free!
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe, Blue Lotus White Lotus verse, Enemies to Friends, Family, M/M, SouRin Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2015-09-17
Packaged: 2018-04-21 04:58:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4815890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shions_heart/pseuds/shions_heart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When King Rin and his bodyguard/lover Sousuke come across a smart-mouthed street rat, Sousuke can't resist offering their help. However, they didn't expect to grow attached.</p>
<p>Set in the <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/4229799/chapters/9566790">Blue Lotus, White Lotus</a> verse. A collaborated effort with Ash (aka <a href="http://chocolate-rin.tumblr.com/">Chocolate-Rin</a>) for SouRin Week, Day Four: Paper - AU "Family."</p>
            </blockquote>





	This is Home

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this, and Ash's accompanying art is so lovely! You can check it out at the end of the fic. XD

Rin wasn’t sure what to expect when he became king, but he was sure he never imagined it to be so tiring. Day in and day out people requested audiences with him. They complained about taxes, requested for the military to be more present in the streets to help curb the crime rates, complained about the amount of military in the streets, requested all military to be withdrawn from the cities and villages, complained about the rise in crime . . . and around and around it went.

It seemed that no matter what Rin did people were left unsatisfied. He didn’t know how to please everyone, and he found himself starting to compromise his father’s laws and beliefs in order to accommodate his citizens. His advisors were no help either. They simpered and praised every decision he made, never once contradicting him. Eventually he released them from their positions, frustrated with their lack of assistance.

Sousuke remained his only comfort. Though they continued to keep their relationship a secret, it brightened Rin’s day whenever he looked over at his bodyguard and found the man’s expressions matching his inner thoughts. Every night, either before or after they forgot their duties in each other’s arms, Rin would ask Sousuke for his opinion on the concerns brought to him by his people.

“I think you’re worried too much about what people think of you,” Sousuke admitted one night. “You didn’t used to be so self-conscious. Bring back your confidence. Do what you feel is right, no matter what your citizens say.”

Rin grimaced at this suggestion. “I want to be a good king,” he said. “I want my people to love me.”

“But you don’t want them to walk over you,” Sousuke pointed out. He brushed a strand of hair behind Rin’s ear, smiling faintly. “You can do this, my king. I believe in you.”

And the conversation ended there, as Rin gave in to his primal urges and forced Sousuke to abandon his restraint.

Still, the words stuck with him and Rin tried his best to remain consistent with his ruling. He didn’t want to appear unreliable or irresponsible. And in an effort to know first hand what his people were going through, he visited the city and villages as often as he could, making note of what could be approved upon and what could be changed to make life better for his citizens.

Sousuke always accompanied him on these trips, for which he was extremely grateful. He still didn’t know the proper way to act outside the palace, but he was learning. Whenever he asked politely for something or thanked someone, he turned to Sousuke for approval, warmth flowing through his chest whenever Sousuke smiled and nodded in response.

War no longer raged at the border of Makuria and Nekor, the armies of D’mi had helped force the Nekorans into surrender. Rin set up trusted officials in the capital, but left the cities and villages to their own devices with minimal interference from his men. He could tell Sousuke was proud of him for such an action, which helped quell any reservations he might’ve had at the start.

After that, he figured that the most stressful part of his job was over. There was no war to oversee, and his citizens were much happier once their sons and fathers and husbands returned home. Everything seemed to be operating with relative ease.

And then he met Sakura.

 

***

 

“If you don’t walk faster, Sousuke, I’m going to leave you behind and then where will you be?” Rin calls over his shoulder with a laugh at his bodyguard, who struggles under the weight of several baskets of fruit.

“I don’t see why we needed to purchase all these dates and figs, my king,” Sousuke grumbles. He lengthens his stride, catching up with Rin in a few quick steps.

“It’s important to support local businesses, Sousuke,” Rin says airily, pausing to drop a few coins into a beggar’s cup. “We get most of our dates and figs from D’mi, which is good for international relations, but I found that there are a few orchards here in Makuria that grow them and our people come first, right?”

“Yes, my king.”

Rin swells with pride at the impressed look on Sousuke’s face. Before he has time to bask in it, however, he feels himself jostled from behind. He stumbles forward, frowning, as he turns to look down at the small boy who is now gripping his cloak to steady himself.

“Watch where you’re going!” he snaps before he can think better of it.

The child starts, tears filling his eyes. “I-I’m so sorry, sir!” he yelps, before letting go and scurrying away.

Rin is shaking his head, doing his best to calm down, when Sousuke grunts and frowns at his sword belt.

“Your coin purse is missing.”

Rin starts, looking down at his side and seeing that the small pouch of gold coins that he kept there has indeed disappeared. Annoyance flares through him, and he turns in the direction that the child had run.

“That little thief!” he exclaims, taking off while ignoring Sousuke’s calls for him to wait.

The boy hasn’t gone far before Rin spots him at the corner of the market, peeking into the pouch as if to count how much he has. Rin doesn’t waste time being discreet but immediately runs up to grab the child’s arm.

“Gotcha!”

“Let me go!” the boy squawks, kicking hard at Rin’s leg.

His foot connects with the prince’s shin, causing him to hiss in pain, though he doesn’t relinquish his grip.

“Stop that! Don’t you know who I am?” Rin asks incredulously, never having been assaulted in this way before. He’s almost surprised enough to loosen his grasp, but as the boy tries to wiggle away, he tightens his hold.

“I don’t know, and I don’t care!” the boy says, spitting at Rin’s feet.

For a moment Rin sees red. He lifts his free hand to strike the boy for his insolence, but then Sousuke is at his elbow, grabbing his wrist before it can descend. Rin turns with a soft growl, but Sousuke only looks back at him calmly, shaking his head. Pulling his hand from Sousuke’s grasp, he flings the boy toward his bodyguard.

“ _You_ deal with him then,” he says petulantly, crossing his arms over his chest.

Sousuke sighs, but kneels before the boy, resting one hand on his shoulder. “Pickpocketing is an offense punishable by imprisonment,” he says. “Are you aware of this?”

The boy doesn’t answer, but instead frowns at the ground. He has black hair cut short around his head, wisps tickling the back of his neck. From what Rin can see of his eyes they’re a deep purple, and his skin is dark from the sun. Sousuke doesn’t press for an answer, but instead simply takes the pouch from him. Counting out a few coins, he places them in the boy’s palm, before closing the purse and tossing it to Rin, who catches it clumsily.

“I apologize for my companion’s behavior,” Sousuke continues. “I’ll let you go with a warning this time, but perhaps you should reconsider your methods of obtaining money.”

The boy’s chin lifts, defiance in his gaze. “I’m _not_ going to beg for it,” he says sharply.

Rin studies him, the pride in the boy’s expression something he can relate to. But then he reminds himself that this street urchin stole from him, and his bad mood returns. Hooking the purse back onto his belt, he shifts his cloak to cover it.

“Sousuke, let’s go.”

Sousuke glances at him before returning to the child. “What if we could offer you an alternative?”

“Alternative?” The boy’s brows furrow over his eyes.

“Sousuke, what are you doing?” Rin asks, getting a bad feeling. The look in Sousuke’s eyes resembles that of the gaze he often gave Nagisa, back when the Nekoran was still Rin’s slave. A soft look full of sympathy and the desire to help. Rin realizes that he never did find out what happened to him. All he knows is that one day he requested the slave, and Sousuke informed him that Nagisa was no longer in the palace.

“We’re lacking in kitchen staff at the moment,” Sousuke explains, ignoring Rin. “Our cook is growing old and could use an assistant. How old are you?”

“Twelve years,” the boy says slowly, watching Sousuke with a skeptical eye. He crosses his arms over his chest then. “How do I know you’re not just trying to trick me? That you’re not going to make me a sex slave or something?”

Sousuke appears completely stunned by such an accusation; so much so that Rin has to snicker at the way his eyes widen and his mouth drops open.

“I just . . . you’re just going to have to trust me,” Sousuke says after a moment of floundering, and Rin wonders if he’d simply gotten used to people placing their faith in him without question.

The boy studies him closely for a moment, and Rin tries to see what he must see: an earnest man with guileless blue-green eyes. Though perhaps Rin is rather bias, he can’t see why anyone _wouldn’t_ be willing to put their complete trust in Sousuke.

“I’ll get paid?” the boy asks finally.

Sousuke nods. “Yes, of course. You’ll be an assistant, not a slave or a servant.”

“Fine, I’ll try it,” the boy states, stepping back and resting his hands behind his head. “But if I don’t like it then I’m running away and taking the silver with me.”

Sousuke’s smile is strained. “Duly noted,” he says, moving to stand then. He picks up the baskets of dates and figs, which Rin hadn’t noticed before, and begins to walk, the boy trotting at his side.

Rin hastens to catch up. “Sousuke, what are you doing?” he hisses out of earshot of the boy.

“Helping someone.”

“We can’t just go around taking in strays!”

Sousuke glances over at him, raising an eyebrow. “Why not? We have the resources and the means to do so. Besides . . . he kind of reminds me of you.” He smirks, and Rin fights a blush.

“I am _not_ that insolent,” he protests.

Sousuke laughs. “If you say so, my king.”

 

***

 

They take the boy back to the palace, and Rin immediately sends him to the bathing rooms to be washed and made presentable. It’s there that it’s discovered that the boy isn’t a boy at all, but a girl. This reveal occurred when she screamed at the male staff assigned to the bathing room, throwing soap bars at them when they attempted to remove her filthy tunic. Sousuke quickly found Princess Gou’s former bathing staff and sent them in, apologizing profusely.

Rin couldn’t even be irritated by the deception, because the shock and horror on Sousuke’s face was too comical to ignore. He fell off his throne laughing when a soaked Sousuke came to inform him of this shocking new development.

A few hours later has the girl, who gives her name as Sakura, standing awkwardly in the middle of the throne room, twisting her fingers into her new, clean tunic and looking about with a faint frown.

“You never said you were the king,” she says sullenly.

“You never said you were a girl,” Rin points out.

“I never said I wasn’t either,” she shoots back.

Sousuke is chuckling beside him, and Rin flushes, wondering if Sousuke is truly over his embarrassment from earlier.

“You can’t fault us for coming to that conclusion, considering your previous state,” he says hotly.

“Do I still have the job?”

Rin wants to say no, just to be spiteful, but a look at Sousuke stops him, and he sighs instead. “Yes, of course.”

“You should show her to the kitchens, my king,” Sousuke suggests, earning him a glare.

“I don’t believe escorting servants is in my job description,” Rin says.

“Hey! You said I wasn’t a servant!” Sakura exclaims, pointing at Sousuke.

“You’re not a servant,” Sousuke hastens to reassure her, before giving Rin a pointed look. “She’s not a servant.”

Huffing in exasperation, Rin slides off his seat, striding down off the dais to approach the girl in what he hopes is an intimidating manner. Only she looks back at him with a placid expression, making him feel foolish. Grumbling under his breath, Rin gestures for Sakura to follow him out of the throne room, leading the way to the kitchens.

“You’re really immature,” Sakura says once they’re away from Sousuke’s hearing range. “I’m surprised they let you be king.”

Rin feels a vein throb on his forehead, and he grits his teeth. “You’re not exactly a goddess of maturity yourself,” he says.

“Maybe not, but I’m just a kid. What’s your excuse?”

Rin stops walking and gapes down at her, sputtering. “I could have your head for such talk!” he exclaims.

Sakura stares back at him impassively, her dark purple eyes unnerving him. “Do it then.”

Rin’s eyes widen. “Have you no sense of self-preservation?” he asks, dumbfounded.

Sakura shrugs, looking away. “My life’s a living hell,” she says. “Starving on the streets, pretending to be a boy so I don’t get raped, sometimes still needing to knife some guy who tries to take advantage of me anyway . . . you don’t know about what orphans out there go through. You have your cushy palace and your bathing staff and giant kitchens. You have no idea what it feels like to be worthless.”

Rin feels his chest tightening, listening to her words. It’s true that he can’t imagine a life like that, but Sousuke’s shown him enough of the squalor his people have lived in to feel something akin to pity grow inside him. Possibly even sympathy.

_Sousuke, you conniving son of a bitch. Is this what you wanted?_

“You can live here, if you’d like,” Rin finds himself saying, before he can stop himself.

Sakura stiffens, frowning up at him. “I don’t need your pity,” she says, narrowing her yes. “I was trying to make a point, not make you feel sorry for me.”

“Don’t be difficult,” Rin growls. “I’m trying to help you!”

“So you’ll feel better about yourself?”

“Contrary to what you might believe, I actually _do_ care about my people and I’m working on creating better lives for them,” Rin insists, crossing his arms. “I’ve actually dedicated a lot of time and resources to rebuilding some of the homes in the outer villages, and you’re not the first person we’ve hired at the palace.”

Sakura blinks. “Oh.” Her gaze shifts to the side, and Rin is surprised that she broke eye contact first.

He sighs. He’s beginning to understand why Sousuke is always rubbing his forehead. He presses two fingers against the throbbing ache over his left eyebrow.

“There’s an extra room in the harem. Don’t give me that look, I don’t have any concubines anymore.” He doesn’t say that it’s because Sousuke has so far fulfilled his promise that Rin won’t need anyone else to satisfy him. “It’s just a hallway full of empty rooms now. You can have the biggest one, if you like.”

“What’s the catch?” Sakura asks, fixing him with another stare.

“Just do your job well and don’t be a nuisance,” Rin says, starting to walk again.

He doesn’t see the grin that lights up Sakura’s face, as she hurries to follow him.

 

***

 

Rin isn’t sure why, but he finds himself visiting the kitchens to see Sakura more often than he’d like to admit. At first he tells himself that he’s simply checking up on her to make sure she isn’t giving anyone trouble and is settling in well, but when his first visit ends with her laughing in his face at his attempt at concern, he finds himself likening it more to a competition.

He’s determined to get her to realize that he’s a good king, that she has no reason to disrespect him.

Begrudgingly, he has to admit that he wants her to like him.

Sousuke seems amused when Rin orders him to find out what Sakura’s favorite color is, and when he discovers that it’s pink, Rin gathers together all the pink flowers he can find and presents the bouquet to her with a flourish.

“What are these for?” she asks skeptically.

“For you. I thought you’d like them,” Rin says with a grin.

Sakura regards the flowers for a moment before sitting down and picking off the petals. Rin yelps and leaps forward to try and snatch them away. She quickly curls over them, preventing him from grabbing them without having to grab her as well. He stops abruptly.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asks in distress.

“They’ll make nice accents for the desserts,” she explains, glancing up at him with a challenge in her eyes.

Grumbling, he concedes the win to her and retreats back into his room to make a new plan.

 

 

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’ve grown fond of her,” Sousuke says one night, as he watches Rin pace back and forth, agonizing over whether or not Sakura was the type to like jewelry.

“I _haven’t_ ,” Rin snaps. “She’s an irritating little street rat who wouldn’t know kindness if it slapped her in the face.” He clenches his fist.

“Perhaps that’s because she’s never truly experienced kindness before now. At least from strangers,” Sousuke muses, stretching on the bed with his arms above his head. “But even if that’s the case, you can’t _force_ someone to like you.”

Rin pauses, distracted momentarily by the sight of Sousuke’s chest muscles flexing. “I got you to like me,” he points out, raking his teeth along his bottom lip.

Sousuke chuckles. “Fair enough.”

“I’ll get her a bracelet. Nothing too fancy,” Rin muses, tapping his chin.

“Come to bed, my king,” Sousuke entices, and Rin relents after a few seconds of deliberation.

However, when he presents the bracelet to Sakura the next day, she wrinkles her nose at it.

“What’s wrong?” Rin asks in exasperation.

“I’m a _cook_ ,” Sakura reminds him, waving her hands in front of his face. “My wrists can’t be weighed down by that thing. It’ll get in my way.”

Rin suppresses a scream of frustration and leaves in a huff. She finds the same thing wrong with the ring he tries to give her, and then when he tries for a dress made of the finest silk, she tells him “What the hell am I going to need a dress for?” When he tries for sandals encrusted with rubies, she says, “You think I want to stomp around a messy kitchen in those?”

He gives her a pony. (“When will I have time to ride it?”)

He gives her a cat. (“They make me sneeze.”)

He gives her perfume and scented oils, which earns him a glare. (“Are you telling me I smell bad or something?”)

After three months of this, Rin collapses on his bed with a groan. “I give up!” he exclaims. “This child is heartless and impossible. We must get rid of her immediately.”

Sousuke looks on from his station at the door with amusement. “Have you considered talking to her and asking what she wants?” he asks.

Rin pauses, feeling his cheeks grow hot, as he honestly hadn’t considered that. Sousuke sighs, stepping over to sit on the edge of the bed.

“You realize that your motives with all this are completely selfish, correct? And I’m sure she knows it. She seems like a sharp kid.”

Rin frowns. “How are my motives selfish? I’m trying to give her things! Nice things!”

“But _why_ are you giving her these things?” Sousuke asks, his voice gentle. He places his hand on Rin’s head, stroking his hair back from his face.

“So she’ll like me and not think I’m a bad king,” Rin replies, and as the words leave his mouth he realizes what Sousuke meant.

Sousuke nods. “Exactly. You want her to like _you_ and think _you_ are a good king. This is all about you, my king. Perhaps you should talk to her, have a real conversation. Then maybe you’ll figure out the perfect gift.”

Rin stares back at Sousuke, leaning into his touch and contemplating his advice. The next day, he decides to try it, thinking it couldn’t hurt. He approaches Sakura in the kitchens as he usually does, leaving Sousuke just outside the door. He leans up against the table where she’s rolling dough, watching her silently for a moment.

“Hey,” he says to start, hating how awkward he sounds.

“What do you have for me today?” Sakura asks, already seeming exasperated.

“Nothing,” Rin admits, and he’s gratified when she pauses in surprise.

She looks up at him, eyes narrowed.

“I swear,” Rin says, holding up his hands to show that they’re empty. “I just . . . thought it’d be nice to talk.”

“You want to talk?”

Rin nods. “I realize that I haven’t exactly taken the time to get to know you, and as you are one of my subjects I feel as though I should.”

“To prove you’re a good king?” Sakura asks, and Rin fights a grimace.

“I’m sorry about all that,” Rin says sincerely. “Sousuke told me that I was being selfish, and I suppose I was. I won’t try to bribe you into liking me anymore.” He shakes his head. “I just . . . I’ve never been that good at making friends; I’ve never really thought I needed them. And yeah at first I was trying to prove that I’m not the immature king you think I am, but now . . . I don’t know. You kind of remind me of my little sister.”

Sakura tilts her head. “Princess Gou?”

Rin nods. “Yeah, she’s off in D’mi now being their princess. But to be honest, even when she was here I didn’t spend a lot of time with her. I’m not sure why. Maybe I just didn’t want her to see how much of a failure I was.”

Sakura purses her lips, turning back to the dough in front of her. “I had an older brother,” she says then, startling Rin.

“You do? I mean . . . you did?” He notes the past tense with a frown.

Sakura nods, eyes still fixed on the rolling pin, as she moves it back and forth. “A sickness took him. Took my parents too. I got really sick too, but I didn’t die for some reason.” She shrugs one shoulder absently. “I guess the gods didn’t want me.”

Rin isn’t sure how to respond to that. He fidgets with the edge of his kaftan, looking toward the door and wondering if Sousuke would come in and help him if he asked. Then he tells himself that he needs to stop relying on Sousuke for everything and turns back to Sakura.

“What were they like? Your family, I mean.”

Sakura stills, looking up to stare at the wall across the kitchen from where they stood. “My father was from an island colony. He was brought here as a slave. He always wanted to go back there one day, and made plans to escape, even. But then he met my mother. She wasn’t a slave, but she wasn’t anyone special either. They fell in love anyway and had my brother and me. My father’s master let us stay in a house on his property, and we didn’t need to work for him, but he didn’t provide for us either. My mother became a seamstress in order feed us. The sickness came through when I was ten. After they died, the master said I couldn’t live on his property unless I worked. I wasn’t about to let myself become a slave, so I took the streets.”

Rin listens, confused by the tightening in his chest as he listens. “I’m sorry,” he says quietly once she falls silent. “That sounds horrible.”

Sakura glances over at him. “This isn’t a bad place to live though,” she says, turning her gaze to the dough once more. A slight flush colors her cheeks. “You remind me of my brother, a little. He wasn’t as annoying as you though.”

Rin feels a familiar anger at being insulted rise within him, but it stops cold when he catches a faint smile flickering across her lips. He realizes that she’s teasing him, not insulting him. Like Sousuke does.

Reaching over, he flicks Sakura’s ear lightly. “Watch it,” he says, not unkindly. “I’m still the king, you know.”

He feels strange as he leaves the kitchens and rejoins Sousuke in the hall. His heart feels light and heavy at the same time. He doesn’t say anything when Sousuke pushes off the wall to stand beside him, only turns to press his forehead against Sousuke’s chest. Sousuke rests his hand on his back, rubbing gently.

“I’m sure allowing her to live here and earn an honest wage is a gift in of itself, my king,” Sousuke points out gently.

“No. It’s not enough,” Rin says, shaking his head. He leans back to look up at Sousuke with a frown. “She’s lost everything, Sousuke. Giving her a few gold coins a week and a bed to sleep on isn’t good enough. She deserves more. A home and a-a family.”

Sousuke raises an eyebrow. “You want to give her that?”

Rin nods firmly. “I do. But I’m not sure how.”

Sousuke glances toward the kitchens, before smiling faintly. He turns back to Rin, and the look in his eyes gives Rin hope.

“I think I have an idea.”

 

***

 

Two weeks later finds Sakura once more standing in the middle of the throne room, looking bemused. She’s wearing a plain pink tunic with a flour-covered apron, simple leather sandals on her feet. She’s grown a couple inches taller since Rin and Sousuke first brought her into the palace, and her hair has grown shaggier, needing to be pinned back from her face. There’s a smudge of flour on her cheek, but Rin resists the urge to point it out, reminding himself of why he summoned her.

She doesn’t bow as a normal subject would, but stands with her hands clasped behind her back, looking at Rin with a crooked smile.

“You sent for me, my king?” she asks, and it’s strange to hear those words in her mouth, when she rarely, if ever, called him her king.

“Uh, yes,” Rin says, trying not to let his anxiety get to him. He stands from his throne, stepping off the dais. “Will you walk with me?”

“Why did you summon me to the throne room if we’re just going to go somewhere else?” Sakura asks with a faint laugh, but her teasing doesn’t grate his nerves as much as it would have three and a half months ago.

“I didn’t want you to get suspicious,” Rin admits, leading the way toward the royal garden. Sousuke follows a short distance behind.

The courtyard is ornate and heavily decorated with marble statues of various mythological creatures, around which are clusters of various kinds of flowers, each section a small garden in of itself. The perimeter is lined with fruit trees, and the giant fountain in the center has three tiers. The water cascades down to the bottom pool, in which swims fish of all sorts of shapes and colors, darting in and out among the lotus stalks.

For a moment Rin pauses, glancing sidelong at Sakura to take in her reaction. Her eyes are wide, lips parted in astonishment. Rin feels something akin to pride at this expression, and then a rush of something like happiness.

“This was my mother’s project, apparently,” he says, stepping further into the garden. “I never really knew her. She died when I was four after giving birth to Gou. But they tell me she spent all her time in here, tending the flowers and feeding the fish and trimming the bushes.”

Sakura looks around slowly, following Rin with small steps. He leads her to a bench, sitting down and waiting for her to sit next to him.

“Why are you showing me this?” she asks in a hushed voice. A few birds titter in the trees behind them, and she starts, turning around to look up at the colorful flock.

“Because . . . I want to ask you something. Well, I want to give you something and ask you something.” Rin gestures for Sousuke to step forward. The guard hands him the small package that he wrapped that morning (crudely and with many exclamations of frustration). He hands it to Sakura carefully. “It’s fragile,” he warns her.

She tears her gaze away from the birds to look at him skeptically, before opening the gift. Inside the folded parchment is a small glass horse. It sparkles in the sunlight overhead, as Sakura turns it over gently in her palm.

“I have no idea what your favorite animal is,” Rin admits. “But Sousuke suggested a horse. It’s hand-blown glass made from sand from the colonies, where you said your dad was born.”

“It’s beautiful,” Sakura murmurs, her eyes still fixed on the different colors that shimmer across the figure.

“And, uh, I know it’s kind of presumptuous to ask but . . . as king I need an heir. And I know everyone is expecting me to get married and have a son, but I don’t want to get married. I don’t want a queen.” He shakes his head slowly, watching her expression.

Sakura shifts her gaze toward Sousuke. “Because of him?”

Rin gapes for a moment, before Sousuke simply grunts the affirmative, nodding slightly. Sakura’s lips lift in a small smirk.

“I knew it,” she says.

Rin coughs. “ _Anyway_ , I found out that I can simply adopt an heir if I want, and I was wondering if maybe . . . if maybe you wanted to be adopted.”

Sakura blinks. Her smirk gone. Her face expressionless. Rin can feel his stomach tightening with anxiety, but he holds his gaze steady, resisting the urge to bite his lip.

“You . . . want me to be your daughter?” she asks then slowly, brows slowly pulling together over her nose.

Rin does bite his lip then, shaking his head. “More like a-a little sister. But you’d be a princess and my heir and would become queen once you turn twenty-one. If you want to. If not, I can adopt someone else too, but I just . . . I wanted to give you something that would make you happy. And I realized that what would make you happy is a home and a family . . . right?”

Impossibly, Sakura’s eyes fill with tears. Rin rears back, panic filling him. He turns to Sousuke for help, but the bodyguard is already sitting on the other side of Sakura, handing her a handkerchief and placing his hand on her back lightly.

“We’ve both discussed this,” Sousuke says gently. “And we understand if you don’t wish to be a part of the royal family. If that’s the case, then allow us to at least find you a family outside the palace.”

Sakura shakes her head, gripping the handkerchief in her free hand, while the other lightly holds the figurine. “No, no, I do. I want to be a part of your family,” she babbles through her tears. “I just . . . I never thought anyone would ever want me and-and then—”

She turns, flinging her arms around Rin’s neck, burying her face in it as she cries harder. Rin, completely taken aback, stares wide-eyed at Sousuke for a moment, before slowly bringing his arms up to wrap around Sakura.

“I-I know I’m not the best person in the world,” he says hesitantly. “But I promise I’ll be a good brother. I’ll try my best at least.”

“Thank you. Thank you,” Sakura says, tightening her grip.

Rin looks at Sousuke helplessly, having no idea what to do with the sobbing girl in his arms.

Sousuke just watches them with a fond smile. “Welcome home, Sakura.”

* * *

 


End file.
